i came in four years after the last
segregated unit was eliminated, not
many years after President trumannulls
enullecutinulle order nullnding segregation
in the armed forcesnull it was also an
army largely stationed in segregated
americanull null late nullnull, early nullnull, when
i came nullcnullfrom my nullst tour in
nullietnam, segregation still was ramnull
nullnt in nullaces linulle columnulls, nullnull
We’re not
going to cut
the president ...
slack nullst nullcause
he is a nullnoritnull.
We’re not going
to do annullhing
nullt nullasure
pernullornullnce.
outside of fort nullnning or fort nullagg
null you name itnullManullr nullses were in
nullrts of the country where segreganull
tion was still the rulenull
tnull then came one of the most
imnullrtant and remarnullanulle nulleces of
legislation in american history nullthe
cinulll rights act of nullnullnull that single
moment swenull away de nullre segreganull
tion, that is segregation null lawnull itstill
left a lot of de facto segregation and
discrimination nullin the hearts and
minds of nullonullenullnullut elimination of de
nullre segregation meant white nullonulle
were freed from the nullrden of segrenull
gation, and so were nullacnullnullonullenull
the military had to wornullhard
to null and correct senullral hundred
years of segregationnull they had to
introduce into our training systems
and our culture young africannull
american ofnullers who had nullen
denied onullortunities nullenullously
and then helnullus nullcome nullrt of a
nulloader society in the armynull and
we did thatnull null the time i nullcame
a nulligadier general, we had huge
numnullrs of africannullamerican ofnull
54 Military officer february 2010 photos: from top, pablo tola/dod; sgt. jeff wright, Usaf/dod; staff sgt. james a. williams, Usaf/dod
Feb_powell.indd 54 1/8/10 2:57 PM
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